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Shall they beat

January 27, 2009

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Shall they beat
their liner into decking?
Major labelstock manufacturers meanwhile have all seen the writing on the wall, and have no wish to be found wanting. UPM Raflatac must surely get high marks for its RafCycle and ProFi initiatives (as reported in L&NW’s July/August issue). The new service now being tested, called RafCycle, involves collecting waste from label printers to be utilized in the production of UPM’s new product, UPM ProFi. This is a wood-plastic composite material used to make decking, reusable containers, pallets and flooring.
What UPM Raflatac doesn’t say is whether the new material can compete in quality and cost with existing building materials. However, the fact that UPM is opening its second wood-plastic composite factory in Europe later this year is at the very least an indicator that the project is more than just an ecologist’s pipe-dream. Already, Raflatac is talking of launching both UPM ProFi and RafCycle on the North American market.